The international event 'What’s next? Policy advocacy and durable impact: lessons learnt from MedRiSSE project' was organized by Asamblea de Cooperación por la Paz (ACPP) in Seville, Spain to make a general overview after two years implementing the project and to outline proposals for future continuity.

Hosted in the city of Seville on 8 November 2023, this event promoted by ACPP as lead beneficiary of MedRISSE, was focused on discussing conclusions on the policy advocacy research developed, on the impact achieved during the project and on lessons learnt over a two-year period. This expertise gained is added to previous gathered experiences from five capitalized European projects implemented in Mediterranean countries: MedTOWN project, MoreThanAJob, MedUP!, IESS! and RUWOMED.

During the meeting, different possible approaches to the project were discussed, such as the promotion of the role of SSE in the development of the green economy, the empowerment of women through the support of cooperatives, the improvement of cooperation between higher education, social entrepreneurs and the SSE sector, digital local currencies in procurement or public spending or mechanisms for access to finance. All these contents can be consulted in the WIKI.

The project partners were also asked questions for future initiatives, based on experience of a partnership and cooperation project in the post-Covid era; best ways considered to adapt good practices from North to South in the Mediterranean and vice versa; or continuity implementing a project in the Middel East and North Africa (MENA) region in the context of war. Finally, some initial ideas were put forward on a possible second phase of MedRiSSE project, considering aspects to be replicated.

The open debate between speakers, stakeholders and participants ended with the conclusions to be taken into account by MedRiSSE and capitalized projects, and to be considered in future initiatives for the dissemination of good practices in Mediterranean countries. The most important was to keep growing the Community of Practice and the Med Social Innovation Lab.

MedRiSSE partners participating in this open session were Assembly of Cooperation for Peace (ACPP), event's host, Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid Department (Oxfam Italy), Jordanian Hashemite Fund for Human Development (JOHUD), Tunisian Center For Social Entrepreneurship (TCSE) and PIN S.c.r.l. Didactical and Scientific Services for the University of Florence (ARCO). An-Najah National University (ANNU) and Agricultural Development Association (PARC) couldn’t attend due to the current situation in Middle East.

This public event was part of the Social Innovation Week in Seville, which hosted a range of closing events after two year of implementation of MedRiSSE, European project co-financed by ENI CBC Med Programme and ACPP.

MedRiSSE project is focused on replicable innovations of social and solidarity economy (SSE) in the provision of services and creation of decent jobs in the post covid-19 crisis recovery. It has been implemented in five countries: Spain, Palestine, Jordan, Tunisia and Italy with a total budget of 1.1 million euros (90% of the programme contribution) and an estimated duration of 27 months, until November 2023.

More info on MedRiSSE project, here 

More info on the event, here

Programme, here

Press release on the event, here

Press release on Social Innovation Week in Seville, here